Two California pension funds say they voted their Oracle shares against company directors, just ahead of a stockholder referendum on the board’s oversight of executive pay.

An adviser to unions has been asking shareholders to vote against three members of Oracle’s compensation committee for awarding Oracle CEO Larry Ellison what it calls excessive pay and the board’s failures to respond to longstanding compensation concerns.

The issues are set for a test Thursday at Oracle’s annual shareholder meeting and director election. It’s unlikely Oracle directors will receive less than a majority of votes cast by investors, in part because Ellison holds about one quarter of company stock.

But a significant percentage of non-supportive votes against one or more directors Thursday would be a symbolic measure of shareholder protest, and might spur Oracle’s board to make changes.

One of the pension funds, the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, said it withheld its 11.5 million Oracle shares, less than 0.3% of shares outstanding, against the election of all 11 company directors. In a letter, the fund and two other asset managers said they have “severe concerns about executive compensation and proper board accountability at Oracle.”

Another pension fund, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, disclosed it withheld 12.3 million Oracle shares from the re-election of Bruce Chizen, the head of the board’s compensation committee. CalPERS said the vote was “due to concerns surrounding compensation design and specific elements of non-performance-based pay” for Ellison and other Oracle executives.

Ellison received compensation valued at $76.9 million in the fiscal year that ended in May, the vast majority of it in Oracle stock options. Oracle’s stock rose nearly 28% in those 12 months.

The California funds’ views were backed by shareholder adviser Institutional Shareholder Services, which earlier this month said Oracle investors should vote against the seven independent directors for failing to tie pay closer to performance.

Oracle last year lost a nonbinding vote on its executive-pay practices, and some shareholders said Oracle should have shaken up board practices in response. Directors said “significant changes to our executive compensation program were not warranted,” and said the stock’s recent performance validated its view.